Isolation — the shell around the room
Every broadcast studio starts with an isolation shell. STC 55+ between studio and control room; STC 55–60 between studio and the outside world.
Construction: staggered-stud walls, MLV inside, poly wadding in the cavity, double drywall each side. Ceiling built the same way; floor floated on rubber isolators for maximum isolation on shared-structure buildings.
The single most important detail: the studio door. Solid-core with acoustic seals on all four edges and automatic drop-seal on the bottom. Skip this and none of the wall work matters.
Absorber target — RT60 0.2–0.3 s
Broadcast-grade acoustic target: RT60 of 0.2–0.3 s across 250 Hz–4 kHz. Short enough that voice sounds intimate; long enough that the room doesn't sound like a dead box.
Wall treatment: fabric-wrap gripper panels with 100 mm poly wadding infill. 60-80% wall coverage.
Ceiling: acoustic clouds with air gap. 40-60% ceiling coverage.
Corners: bass traps floor-to-ceiling in all four corners.
The control room — different rules
Control rooms are for monitoring and mixing, not for recording. RT60 target is slightly longer (0.3–0.4 s) for comfortable long-session monitoring.
Standard treatment: absorption on side walls at primary reflection points, diffusion on the rear wall behind the mix position, ceiling clouds above the mix position. Corners get bass traps.
Acoustic separation from the studio: full-height glass or double-drywall wall. Talkback and headphone monitoring rather than open-window communication.
Silent HVAC — the reference detail
Broadcast studios need HVAC that runs at NC 15 or quieter (below 25 dBA in the room). This requires: duct silencers on intake and exhaust, low-velocity air handling, fan-coil units isolated on rubber mounts, and careful supply grille design.
Skip HVAC silencing and every recording has ambient fan noise in the background. This is a common failure point in retrofit studios.
Cable management and RF isolation
Broadcast studios often need RF isolation as well as acoustic. This means shielded cable runs, isolated ground systems, and sometimes copper mesh in the walls for full RF blocking.
For talk-radio and podcast studios, RF isolation is less critical. For music broadcast and news studios where multiple microphones are on air simultaneously, it matters.
Regional broadcast studio suppliers
Acoustimart supplies materials to broadcast studios across India — from All India Radio installations to private FM operators to regional TV news channels. Materials and technical support; construction is handled by specialist broadcast-studio contractors.
For a broadcast studio project, send us the drawings and target specifications. We'll return a materials plan and connect you with a regional contractor if you don't have one.